The Forgotten Chocolatiers (Our "Black List" of America's Best New Chocolates)

For the March issue of the magazine (hitting newsstands a week from today), I was assigned the arduous task of finding the country's best new chocolatiers and chocolate makers. After testing more than 20 different small-batch brands, and learning that, in fact, there is such a thing as consuming too much of the stuff (in one sitting), I winnowed the field to a dozen winners. When it came time for the photo shoot, there wasn't room for everyone on the page. Since all twelve contenders were worthy, the criteria, at that point, for picking and choosing, was aesthetic. And that meant a few of my favorite cacao-driven products didn't make the page. We wouldn't want to deprive you of them, so we put together our own Hollywood Black List of sorts for the unsung chocolate heroes:

Jade ChocolatesSan Francisco, CAProps to Amy Pennington (gogogreengarden.com), one of the tastemakers you'll meet in the March issue, for insisting that I familiarize myself with the work of San Francisco native Mindy Fong. Tapping into her Chinese and Filipino heritage, Fong brings East and Southeast Asian ingredients like toasted brown rice, smoky lapsang souchong tea, sesame seeds, ylang-ylang and Indonesian cinnamon to chocolate with complex subtlety. After I finished writing the story for BA, I ordered myself an extra stash of her bars, namely, the Genmai (and I don't normally get jazzed about milk chocolate), the Dragon's Breath and the Espresso. ($6.25 each; jadechocolates.com)

Rogue ChocolatierThree Rivers, MA While checking out the cheese at the South End outpost of Fromaggio Kitchen in Boston, the botanical etchings on the paper wrapped around Colin Gasko's slender slabs caught my eye. Would they taste as lovely as their artful trappings? Better, in fact. In an act of fortuitous "foolhardiness," Colin Gasko went from working at a Whole Foods counter to tracking down the world's best beans, which he takes, by varietal, through every step (from cleaning to tempering, molding to packaging) of the bar-making process (from $7 each; roguechocolatier.com)

Marcie BlainePhiladelphia, PAThese are the bonbons I buy myself when the downtrodden blues, Golightly-esque "mean reds" or fancy of any hue strikes. They're also a perfect host/hostess gift. Known for her daunting versatility as a savory chef (she has aced Mexican and Indian food along the way, and, news alert, just opened a Spanish spot in Philly called jamonera), Marcie Turney turns to cocoa and pulls off truffles with a glorious depth of flavor. Her imaginative combinations include concord grape and balsamico, banana and tahini or elderflower and champagne. ($18 per 9-piece box; marcieblaine.com)

Dandelion Chocolates ** San Francisco, CACutting the ribbon of their bean-to-bar factory in the Mission District any day now, Todd Masonis and Cam Ring set out to craft the finest bars the Bay Area has ever seen two years ago--and now have three standard-raising, 70% dark rectangles (one from Madagascar, one from Costa Rica and one from Colombia) to show for it. Each plays different notes on your palate. I used that Colombian number in the pint of chocolate chip gelato I churned a few weeks ago, and, if I don't say so myself, it was a very smart move. ($8 each; dandelionchocolate.com) --Charlotte Druckman